Garment bags are frequently used forms of luggage, particularly favored by business travelers who travel by air or train. When garment bags are checked with an airline, they are often protected from damage by a box or carton which is generally rectangular in cross section and sufficient in length to accommodate the garment bag. Because this long box is awkward to handle, it is customary to include as part of the box a handle portion at one end of the box.
One style of handle currently used consists of a pair of mating handle flaps extending longitudinally from the top end of the box. The flaps have mating holes in them sufficiently large for the fingers or a hand to slip through. When assembled together, the handle flaps form a generally flat handle which can be grasped by slipping the fingers or a hand through the mating holes and curling the fingers around the two assembled flaps.
This structure, and similar structures for garment bag boxes, create problems when they are placed on the conveyer system in an airline's baggage handling area. The projecting handle acts like a hook and tends to get caught on the conveyor mechanism. This often causes the handle to tear, rendering it useless and requiring a temporary shutdown of the baggage conveyor to extricate the box. This in turn causes delays in distributing luggage to the passengers.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a box which can easily receive and safely protect a garment bag. Another object is to provide a box that can be easily and reliably grasped and carried after the garment bag is loaded into the box, and which securely suspends the garment bag within the box despite the jostling that occurs during travel. Yet another object is to provide such a box that will avoid becoming caught and tearing on the conveyor system in a baggage area of a common carrier.